Getting to Viña

Once we chose Chile, we narrowed in on Viña del Mar fairly quickly.  That was a challenge, in retrospect, give how enormous Chile is, and how extraordinarily different the regions are.  Alicia has a friend who lived in Chile for several years who recommended that we investigate San Antonio, Valparaíso, and Viña del Mar, and I met some friends of a friend who grew up in Viña pretty early on in this process.  The Viña/Valpo area has about the same population size as Minneapolis-Saint Paul (my comfort zone), its central location might make it easier to explore both the northern and southern parts of the country, and its proximity to Santiago hopefully means day- or weekend-trips to the big city. (Also, if we need to get to the Embassy, it's only an hour and a half away.)

Viña has been described to me as the working-class counterpart to neighboring bohemian Valpo. It has been described to me as a resort town (am I going to live in the Chilean Miami? Lahaina? The Chilean Cancun?) and a place that Chileans go for vacation. It's also a place that the president of the country relaxes, and where the legislative branch of the government houses.  I am looking forward to to exploring the city and the region, and am curious about how two economies - tourist and local - play out in Chile, especially as it is something I think about, but don't know much about, in the United States.